Twenty for Prayer — September 2007

Again, not anything of literary note. Follow the link if you want to join in on the prayer.

This month I feel we should pray about: the sacredness of families

Families can be troublesome. Not all of us get along with everyone in ours, but they are also the center and heart of our society…even if ours is far away. Our parents may not have been everything that could be desired (well, except for my mom, who is a saint. ;-) But they are our parents, and the Bible tells us to honor them.

This week, someone showed me a news story that I first thought must be a urban legend. So I was shocked, upon looking it up, to discover the story was real. Fran Lyon, a 22 year old English woman, who is a promising scholar and the daughter of two teachers, is going to have her baby taken away from her the moment it is born. The reasons? According to a doctor who never met her, the fact that she had some mental problems when she was 16 – after being raped – means, that she might develop a syndrome that would make her claim the baby was ill to get attention. (You can see the young woman speak at : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90q5kXlOW_g )

Worst of all, the proceedings about this are held in a secret court – something that is apparently growing in England – and she does not necessarily get to speak for herself.

According to the British news articles I read, this is only one of numerous seizures of children (one article suggested that there had been around 1000.) The general feeling expressed in the articles is that there are not enough healthy English babies for people seeking adoptions, so now children are being taken under flimsy pretences.

Things are not as bad in America, but I have heard two recent cases of Child Services being called on people who are perfectly good parents.

To me, this indicates a need for prayer. God puts families together, and while there might be reason to break a family up in cases of proven, repeated abuse, to break up a family for any other reasons is to violate the sacred trust God gave to them.

So, let us pray for families and children in general, but also for this young woman and her child in particular, that God’s will be done! (And also for the soul of the father, whomever he may be. The fact that he is not in these articles and has not stepped up to marry the young woman, or at least offer to take his child, does not speak well for him!)

Related Bible Passages:

“And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood.

And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his sonAnd the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I.

And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.

And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.”(Geneses 22:9-13)“Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.” (Exodus 20:12)

“Thus saith the Lord; Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the Lord;” (Jeremiah 31:16)

“Yet setteth he the poor on high from affliction, and maketh him families like a flock. The righteous shall see it, and rejoice: and all iniquity shall stop her mouth.” (Psalm 107:41-42)

“Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity” (Habakkuk 1:13)

“Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth? saith the Lord: shall I cause to bring forth, and shut the womb? saith thy God.” (Isaiah 66:9)

“ Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.” (Matthew 5:4)

Post navigation

6 thoughts on “Twenty for Prayer — September 2007”

I think that my post over at John’s site, about a very mildy mentally retarded couple in Ohio losing their children without any evidence of abuse or neglect, was likely one of the recent stories you heard that promted this wonderful month’s prayer.

I’d like to tell you how God has answered the prayers. I just got the following email from my friend, the ‘landlady’ of this poor family, who has been working so hard to help them keep their children:

“Joyful News:

Praise be to God and much, much thanks to everyone who prayed for our renters. Today, at a hearing, the decision was made to return our renters children to them!

Last week, their advocate at Ohio Civil Liberties resigned and a new lawyer took this position. His title is actually (can you believe it?) “Guardian of Light”. He truly was, and unlike advocates from various agencies, who have been assigned to this case over the last three grueling years, he truly fought for this family.

He visited the couple, the children (at their foster home), and put such pressure on Social Services concerning the injustice of the situation, that Social Services “withdrew their petition” to permanently sever ties with the parents. He was going to expose the injustice to strong light.
Just a month or two ago, Social Services had said the couple could no longer see their children at all, because that was their “procedure” when they had determined to place the children permanently elsewhere.

My husband was at the hearing and said that Social Services will still look for any small infraction to hold against them. They will have their children back more & more, with a permanent (24/7) turn over at Thanksgiving (& what a perfect feast for it!)

Please continue to pray for this family, that they all grow & stay close to our Lord, and are helped with every difficulty that may arise.
Thanks again tremendously for the prayers, it was truly a miracle, for the situation had looked as dark as could be. God bless, “

You see that they still need prayer – Social Services will be looking for any reason to take the children back. But they do have a much better advocate than they’ve ever had in the last 3 years and HE DID HIS JOB (a miracle in itself!!) THANK YOU for the prayers for this family, and may this family be allowed to heal from the horrible wounds given them by the state of Ohio’s Social Services department. – Ave

Yes, injustice is not a ‘done deal’ all of the time, and especially not when people work hard and pray hard to over come it.

Its strange how the Lord uses us, many of whom will never meet in this life, to assist each other through nothing else than our prayers. I imagine when we finally all do get to that place where the “Lord wipes every tear from their eyes” we will be simply astonished to learn how all of those little prayer moments we usually forget after a time have impacted the whole world.

I think this is one of the most amazing and wonderful parts to being a member of the Body of Christ! – Ave

I think that my post over at John’s site, about a very mildy mentally retarded couple in Ohio losing their children without any evidence of abuse or neglect, was likely one of the recent stories you heard that promted this wonderful month’s prayer.

I’d like to tell you how God has answered the prayers. I just got the following email from my friend, the ‘landlady’ of this poor family, who has been working so hard to help them keep their children:

“Joyful News:

Praise be to God and much, much thanks to everyone who prayed for our renters. Today, at a hearing, the decision was made to return our renters children to them!

Last week, their advocate at Ohio Civil Liberties resigned and a new lawyer took this position. His title is actually (can you believe it?) “Guardian of Light”. He truly was, and unlike advocates from various agencies, who have been assigned to this case over the last three grueling years, he truly fought for this family.

He visited the couple, the children (at their foster home), and put such pressure on Social Services concerning the injustice of the situation, that Social Services “withdrew their petition” to permanently sever ties with the parents. He was going to expose the injustice to strong light.
Just a month or two ago, Social Services had said the couple could no longer see their children at all, because that was their “procedure” when they had determined to place the children permanently elsewhere.

My husband was at the hearing and said that Social Services will still look for any small infraction to hold against them. They will have their children back more & more, with a permanent (24/7) turn over at Thanksgiving (& what a perfect feast for it!)

Please continue to pray for this family, that they all grow & stay close to our Lord, and are helped with every difficulty that may arise.
Thanks again tremendously for the prayers, it was truly a miracle, for the situation had looked as dark as could be. God bless, “

You see that they still need prayer – Social Services will be looking for any reason to take the children back. But they do have a much better advocate than they’ve ever had in the last 3 years and HE DID HIS JOB (a miracle in itself!!) THANK YOU for the prayers for this family, and may this family be allowed to heal from the horrible wounds given them by the state of Ohio’s Social Services department. – Ave

Yes, injustice is not a ‘done deal’ all of the time, and especially not when people work hard and pray hard to over come it.

Its strange how the Lord uses us, many of whom will never meet in this life, to assist each other through nothing else than our prayers. I imagine when we finally all do get to that place where the “Lord wipes every tear from their eyes” we will be simply astonished to learn how all of those little prayer moments we usually forget after a time have impacted the whole world.

I think this is one of the most amazing and wonderful parts to being a member of the Body of Christ! – Ave